“Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage” is an exhibit of artwork in album collections, created primarily by aristocratic Victorian women, that mixes photography with watercolor painting. Alexandra, the princess of Wales, took a keen interest in photography – posing for, collecting, and making her own images. Here, members of the royal family are featured, framed by an intricate decorative design.
Marie-Blanche-Hennelle Fournier’s depiction of a peacock butterfly with faces in the position of the “eyes” of the wings reveals her substantial artistic talent as well as her skills in botanical and zoological drawing.
Popular children’s tales by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, and Lewis Carroll became fertile material for photocollages, including this one, which appears to relate the story of Thumbelina. Although the identity of the maker of this collection remains a mystery, the initials E.P.B. and J.P.B and the name Bouverie on various pieces suggest that it belonged to the Pleydell-Bouverie family. PHOTO: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This album’s scenes of country-house life and London cosmopolitanism provide tongue-in-cheek commentary regarding the aristocratic society in which the Cochrane-Baille sisters grew up. The album contains a variety of styles suggesting more than one artist.
Despite her lack of title or inheritance, Georgina Berkeley maintained the sophisticated lifestyle that her ancestry provided. Her collages reveal her fascination with London’s urban pastimes as well as her cutting social commentary.
Maria Harriet Elizabeth Cator made albums that were mementos of family events and history. Surprisingly, this one collage is particularly lighthearted and appears to parody the very carte-de-visites (calling cards) that provided the raw material for these collages.
Lady Filmer married into status and worked to advance herself and her husband in London society. She arranged her collages to situate herself at the center of cosmopolitan life.
Two years after becoming a countess through marriage, Victoria Alexandrina Anderson-Pelham began producing photo collages. “Mixed Pickles” was most likely based on a parlor word game of the same name. Her husband, Lord Yarborough, is pictured outside the jar with his pickle fork.
This composition of ducks bearing ladies’ faces may have been inspired by Charles Darwin’s new theories of evolution or by political cartoons from magazines such as Punch.
Card playing, a common pastime in Victorian high society, provided opportunities for socializing and flirting. It was also a common theme in photo collages. Portraits replace the heads of kings and queens, elevating the subjects in rank.
The Johnstone Album represents the appropriation by the commercial printing press of an activity that was originally aristocratic and handmade. Here the grids are commercially printed and the collage maker need only paste within the shapes, offering the opportunity for those with less leisure time to create similar family albums.
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